S. Korea edges up in 2008 labor productivity: OECD

SEOUL, Dec. 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's per capita labor productivity edged up
one notch to 22nd place last year among members of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), a government report said Tuesday.
Citing the Paris-based OECD's 2009 National Account report, the Ministry of
Knowledge Economy said the country's productivity jumped 4.6 percent on-year to
US$57,204 value added per worker employed, higher than the average for the
group's 30 member nations.
South Korea stood at 24th place in 2002 and moved up to 23rd place in 2003. It
remained there until last year when it overcame New Zealand, which reported a
labor productivity gain of just 0.8 percent.
The United States ranked fourth in the labor productivity ladder after
Luxembourg, Norway and Ireland, while Japan stood at 20th place.
South Korea's labor productivity is about 61.5 percent of levels reached by the
United States and 84.2 percent of Japan's.
The latest report showed South Korea's labor productivity in the manufacturing
sector ranking 11th in the OECD due to annual productivity gains of an average
6.7 percent from 2000 through 2007.
But it ranked 22th among 25 countries in the service sector labor productivity
scale.
The OECD report showed South Korea moving toward more value-added production, but
still suffering from a slow pace of development in the service sector.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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